Buxton went behind in the opening minute at home to Derby County Under-21s in the Cawarden Derbyshire Senior Cup quarter-finals, Tuesday February 6th, but fought back with a goal to take the tie to penalties. Then 'keeper Joe Young saved twice and got a hand to a third, as the Bucks triumphed 4-2. They will entertain Matlock Town in a semi-final next Tuesday.
Conceding early in games is becoming an unwelcome habit for the Bucks and Tony Weston scored for the young Rams after just one minute. The much-changed home side saw a debut in defence for assistant manager Ryan Qualter and Craig Elliott also brought in Diego De Girolamo, Dylan Mottley-Henry, Max Brogan and Eoin McKeown. It was McKeown who levelled things by prodding home in the 21st minute after sustained pressure from the Bucks.
For much of the game the sides cancelled each other out but the Bucks won at the statistics, with 53% possession, four times as many goal attempts as the visitors and twice as many on target.
It was flawless penalty taking by Jak McCourt, Connor Kirby, Adam Livingstone and Max Hunt, while shot-stopping hero Joe Young made sure the Bucks would go through to the cup semi-final. Full Match Report HERE
Craig Elliott was pleased overall. He said: "After a disappointing start we managed to create opportunities and put pressure on County for the equaliser, who played very well at times and were no pushover. It needed penalties but we deserved to go through and are building a decent run of results. It's good for the confidence of the lads."
The semi-final against Matlock Town will be on Tuesday 13th of February, kick-off 7.45pm. Before that, the Bucks make the long trip to Northumberland and a Vanarama National League North match at Blyth Spartans, 3pm start.